Thailand is close to implementing chemical castration as a method of combating s*x crime. After lawmakers approved a bill that will allow some criminals the ability to select the surgery in exchange for a reduced prison sentence.

Late on Monday, 145 senators voted in favor of the measure, which the lower house had approved in March. There were two abstentions. Another vote in the house is still necessary, followed by royal approval.

4,848 of the 16,413 convicted s*x offenders who were freed from Thai prisons between 2013 and 2020 reoffended, according to data from the correctional department.

In accordance with the proposed legislation, those s*x offenders who are considered to be at high risk of reoffending may decide to undergo injections that lower their testosterone levels in exchange for serving less time in prison, provided they have the endorsement of two doctors.

The bill stipulates that the offenders must wear electronic monitoring bracelets and be tracked for ten years.

If accepted, Thailand would join a select group of nations that employ chemical castration, which also includes some U.S. states, Poland, South Korea, Russia, and Estonia.

“I want this law to pass quickly,” Justice Minister Somsak Thepsuthin said on Tuesday. “I don’t want to see news about bad things happening to women again,” he said.

Chemical castration, according to Jaded Chouwilai, director of the Women and Men Progressive Movement Foundation, a non-governmental organization that handles s*xual assault among other issues, won’t stop s*x crime. “Convicts should be rehabilitated by changing their mindset while in prison,” he said.

“To use punishment like execution or injected castration reinforces the idea that offender can no longer be rehabilitated.”

Pakistan made the announcement last year that rapists charged of repeat offenses would be castrated.

Source: dailymail.co.uk